Week 6—Oct 10-16 Food, Glorious Food

Well, we’re starting to settle into a pattern.  This is Barbara’s second week back to work part-time and we’re getting the hang of the schedule.  It has been nice having Barbara’s mom around to help with a little of the driving, errands and an extra set of hands with the babies.

With Grammy Carol around, I took the boys out on a couple of walks and Grammy came along.  The first day we took it easy and just walk around our block by the house.  The second time we got out, we actually walked around the long block.  The total trip was about a half mile.  We’re trying to get Carol ready for her upcoming trip to India where she may be doing a lot of touristy walking.  She’s getting stronger with the walking and getting to enjoy being out with the boys.  It’s been so wonderful having the grandparents on both sides be able to come and visit with the twins when they first arrived home from the hospital.  We have some wonderful photos of the boys with their doting grandparents and a few 3-generation photos that are priceless.

This week, the boys are 6 weeks old and I took them out shopping for the first time.  I went on some errands including to the Trader Joe’s and did my shopping with the double stroller.  With the nice big pouch on the bottom, I was able to put my groceries there and still shop with the boys.  I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was a dad pushing twins around, or the fact that it was a weekday afternoon, but I got a few odd stares from other customers.  But, I was enjoying getting them out and I also got a fair number of appropriate “oohs” and “aahs” and “how cute—twins!” etc.  They, of course, slept through the whole trip.  But it’s nice that I can take them out on errands as long as it is between feedings.

The boys continue to be well and to grow.  We spoke with the pediatrician last week about the reflux and she said that one contributor to reflux is larger meals.  She said that more frequent smaller meals may help Dexter with the reflux.  So we’re cutting him back to 3.5 oz per feeding (from 4).  It does seem to help, but they’re still not waking until about 4 hours, so it’s decreased the amount that Dexter is eating.  We’ll monitor to see how he does, but for now, between the smaller amounts and the inclined crib and pack-n-play, he seems to be doing better.  Still has some reflux, but it’s definitely better.

We had joined the Columbia Area Mother’s of Multiples club (CAMoM) and one of the programs they have has other mothers of multiples volunteer to make meals for new parents of multiples.  This week one of the volunteers brought us dinner that included a roast chicken, a big container of teriyaki string beans and a big container of rice.  It made two good –sized dinners for the three of us and was truly wonderful.  What a fantastic program.  I know that when we finally come out from under our cloud of sleep deprivation we’ll want to return the favor by doing for other families what this volunteer did for us.   This in addition to food that was prepared for us by family friends has been a lifesaver for us.  We’ve had about 5 friends who have made us food that was truly well appreciated.  Just having food that could be popped in the microwave to quickly eat around the babies’ schedule was truly helpful.  And having all this homemade food was even that much more special.